The invention relates to the use of a bipole that is fitted in a hazard warning system socket for removably receiving a hazard warning system, which can be read out electrically by an electronic control of the hazard warning system.
The hazard warning systems considered here are point detectors. They can for example be fire alarms or smoke alarms. Preferably these fire alarms or smoke alarms involve optical fire alarms, which have an optical detector unit operating in accordance with the scattered light principle for the detection of smoke particles. As an alternative or in addition they can have a detector unit operating in accordance with the acousto-optical technique or a gas sensor for the detection of gases typical of fires. Furthermore the hazard warning systems can be acoustic alarm emitters, so-called sounders. They can be flashing lights, so called beacons, or a combination thereof, so-called sounder beacons. Finally the hazard warning system can be an intrusion alarm for the detection of a possible break-in.
Furthermore the hazard warning systems considered here are connected, for transmission of signals or data, via a common alarm line, especially via a two-wire line, to a fire alarm center. A number of such hazard warning systems can be connected in alarm groups or alarm lines to a hazard warning system center, via which the hazard warning systems are also typically supplied with electric power.
The hazard warning systems can have different modes of operation. This means that they can be configured or parameterized in different ways, wherein a mode of operation also encompasses the respective combination of a number of different functionalities which do not have a direct functional relationship with one another.
In the case of a fire alarm for example different levels of sensitivity can be set, such as e.g. via DIP switches or contact bridges. This enables the response time and/or the detection threshold for detection of smoke to be changed for example, depending on whether the fire alarm is to be used for example in an office building or in a welding shop. In the case of an acoustic and/or optical alarm, different values can be set for example for the volume, for the flashing sequence or for alarm tone intervals. In the case of an intrusion alarm different sensitivity thresholds can be set for example. It is also possible for what is known as the anti-masking function to be switched on or switched off.
Instead of setting the parameters by the switches it is also possible for the parameters to be set via a program interface or over the alarm line by the fire alarm center.
The disadvantage of this is that, when the hazard warning system is replaced, new parameters may have to be set for the unit.